There have not been any positive tests in Alaska of the six or so people they tested. But I was in the Seattle area the last month or so and concern there is high enough that several universities have switched classes to online and cancelled in-person classes. Two weeks ago I was at a packed Elizabeth Warren rally in downtown Seattle and last weekend I took the train to Vancouver, WA for a conference.
Should I be tested? Despite what the president says, that doesn't appear to be my decision to make. My granddaughter has been kept home from school starting today because she was exposed to me and they don't want to expose the other kids. They want me to test negative so they can send her back to school.
So I have the following questions:
- If I self quarantine, the CDC and others say I'm safe to go out after the two week period. BUT if no one is getting tested, we don't know how many people with the virus we're exposed to after we go out. So I'm only risk free if everyone with symptoms or exposure stays home. Right?
- If someone tests positive for COVID 19, but has no symptoms or no serious illness, or even a serious bout,
- will they continue to test positive after they've recovered? (So that they could know after the fact, and possibly because it mean they were probably no longer susceptible or a danger to others.)
- If so, are they then immune? The Dr. Campbell tape said few people have gotten reinfected, but he also says there are two strains - S and L. And that it's possible to get the one strain and then the other. But they don't really know.
- After they've tested positive and been quarantined, they should be safe to others. Maybe we could have badges that people can wear that say that.
- But since we don't have enough tests only a relatively few people will be tested, so people won't know if they've:
- had the virus with no symptoms
- had the virus with some symptoms but didn't get tested
- never had the virus
- What would happen if clusters of low risk people were intentionally exposed to the virus and quarantined until the danger of spreading it was over? Presumably that would develop a pool of people who would pose no danger to anyone else. And this could happen on a rolling basis. Not sure there is time for something this any more.
- What if we exposed higher risk people in a way that had them ready for serious medical attention during their quarantine period? I ask this because there is talk about hospitals and health care workers being overrun. Could this be a way to space things out a bit more? Or would it expose people to life and death danger unnecessarily? It just seems if we could develop enough pockets of virus free people and virus recovered people, it would be easier to slow down the spread and it would help the health care system keep open for non-COVID related health problems.
I'm putting these questions here because I couldn't find answers online. All this is supposition and questions. A lot of epidemic prevention advice is aimed at individuals - wash your hands, etc. But governments have to organize larger structural ways to prevent epidemics. I'm sure people have thought of all this, but I just can't find the discussions.
Sorry to hear you're not feeling well, Steve. I would put this whole thing out of my mind but for two things: I must take an immunosuppressant for psoraisis (the only thing that works) and the love of my life developed adult asthma after a bad bit of exposure to something all Brits simply grow up with: black mould spores. We think of mould in one's house like some do having a cat: it can live with us or without us.
ReplyDeleteSo I imagine millions upon millions of us worried a bit more than we'd like for being in that 14% who are higher risk for life-threatening effects from COVID-19. Well, that and being a bit older.
Then we have your situation: how terrible we can become threat to those we love (as well as friends & strangers, for that matter) is at the heart of this virus threat to our lives, isn't it?
And so here I am, as someone who studies the history of my family in Northern Germany and Scandinavia, where in times not long ago children died of smallpox and other diseases at rates approaching 1 in 5. I've seen this smudge in my family records -- as relations laid loved ones in the earth, far too early.
Delightful bit of thought. Sorry. I know we all face this now, a bit of worry, a scratchy cold or sniffle that we fear might become that journey from which we won't return. Oh, even more dreary!
Writing in the moment. Unguarded, unedited thinking, but what people think about in times of plague -- only it's our plague -- even if less a threat to life. Far less. I think on those times in human misery. I think of it and wonder how did they cope? How did they rebuild life after such death?
I'm sorry; you're not feeling well, and I have a lingering & mild cold, run-down a bit, not getting better nor worse. Maybe it was doing our VERY LAST US taxes this year? (always get sick doing that!) But life goes on.
So far, no toilet paper panic in our little household, no stock-piling pasta (we have more than we need). We're still out & about walking, riding busses (maybe not the tube) and going to work & classes, seeing people, shopping and the like. No death carts about that I can see.
I think we'll live. My thoughts to all those who are ill, we who are worried for loved ones, those silly scared, who are hoarding, and of those who are helping all of us care for one another.
We can, we should, get by. As for you, carry on with digging for facts & posting; we appreciate it -- and finally,
Be Well, good Alaskan friends & family!